Black Pearl

Chapter 1

I stood on the shore, watching the waves crash against the jagged rocks, once a great force now reduced to mist that sprayed my face, dripped down my long nose and soaked my hair. The sea was angry today, churning and whirling as if it had been wronged and I wished that I could understand the water in the ways that my sisters did. They would have been able to feel the droplets in the air and know that change was coming, that one of the daughters was facing great challenges soon. They would have been able to foresee the upheave that my world would be tossed into.

But I stood there blindly, oblivious. 

"Ember," someone murmured from behind me.

I knew in my heart that I was safe. I knew that I was on an isolated island with only my sisters around and that no one here would harm me. But my hand still twitched for the dagger that was strapped to my thigh, buried under layer upon layers of skirt.

I fought my instincts and loosened my clenched fist. A beautiful grin was pressed into my features as I turned to face my sister. Even among sirens she was considered an outstanding beauty. I heard stories of men throwing themselves at her mother's feet before we were all forced to move to the island and that kind of beauty, that kind of power was hereditary. If she ever came across men now, they would surely beg her just to touch her golden hair or look upon her blue eyes.

"Oceana, hello," I greeted, trying to ease the pounding sensation in my chest. She was my sister, my most trusted sister.

"Pondering life's great mysteries?" she asked, smiling as another wave slammed against the rocks. Now it seemed like the water was leaping up to greet her, recognizing one of Poseidon's daughters, while it ignored me.

"Just enjoying some quiet," I shrugged. "Dozens of girls in one place can get a little loud."

"Well, it's not very quiet out here either. There's a storm brewing to the north. It's going to be a nasty night."

"I can handle it," I assured, knowing very well that she hadn't just come out here to tell me about the weather that I could see with my own two eyes.

"Our queen has requested to see you," Oceana said finally. 

My gut tightened, though our queen was a kind and fair ruler, one of us. She had brought us to safety when the world turned against us for the actions of our ancestors and she ruled over us with compassion. She made the decisions that kept us alive after the humans started hunting us. There was no one else that could be thanked for our survival. 

But the last time I had been called into a meeting with her, it was because she knew that I had broken the rules. She had known that I swam off the island, swam as far as my body to take me, until I had found a new shore with a land that wasn't covered in sirens. I had broken the law that had been unchanged for two decades. 

I had gone to see the humans.

Maybe now she knew the truth. Maybe she knew that I hadn't just bobbed at the surface and watched humans interact from afar, that I had climbed out of the water.

She could know that I had fled back into the ocean with blood on my hands and tears in my eyes.  

I swallowed hard and followed Oceana back into the palace that housed us all. In comparison to the splendor that I had witnessed, our palace was small and simple. We did not have many human allies to help us build a safe haven and, as women who only knew how to sing and entice men, there had been a great struggle to get any structure erected at all. Now that all of the volunteers had returned to their lives, forgetting about it, it was beginning to show its weaknesses. But it was my home. It was the home to all of the fifty three surviving sirens.